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Monday, March 08, 2004
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ACADEMIA TODAY
UCLA SOLVES DEADWOOD PROBLEM Los Angeles, March 8 - The University of California at Los Angeles has for a number of years been solving its deadwood problem through a bold, profitable, but, some say, risky strategy that just may make it a template for universities across the nation. The identification and handling of campus deadwood is one of the knottiest problems facing American higher education. How does a university phase out unproductive tenured faculty? UCLA administrators grappling with the problem looked to that university’s respected Willed Body Program, which, as reported in today’s New York Times ["U.C.L.A. Official Is Held In Cadaver-Selling Inquiry,” John M. Broder, March 7], “receives about 170 cadavers every year for teaching and research.” Although the sale of body parts is illegal, the market is lightly regulated, and a recent police investigation has revealed that the head of UCLA’s program has for years been profiting from the sale of organs and tissue that he took from bodies donated to the university for purposes of scientific inquiry. “We talked to the folks over in Willed Body,” says UCLA’s acting provost, “and they explained how the market in kidneys and liver parts works. We conceived the idea of approaching deadwood faculty with the following proposition: after five years of nonproductivity, defined as nonpublication of a book or five refereed articles, the faculty member would have a choice between selling one kidney, with profits going to the university, or accepting a modest early retirement package. Faculty loved it! Not only are they saving a life, but they are taking the pressure off of themselves and contributing to the wellbeing of the institution. It’s a win-win situation.” Not everyone is sure. “What happens after ten years? Fifteen?” asked Charlotte Bayfield, UCLA professor of Corporeality Theory and author of Willed Bodies that Matter. “I find the image of nonstellar university professors gradually being scalpeled to nothingness over the course of their careers distasteful,” she said. “What’s the end point? When they die is what’s left of them handed over to the Willed Body program? It reminds me of the film Soylent Green.” UCLA’s provost, when told of Bayfield’s reservations, scoffed. “Earth to Bayfield!” she said. “Universities are part of market reality, like it or not. We understand that these matters have to be handled sensitively, but we also see that if UCLA doesn’t become efficient, we are going to attract the attention of budget cutters and disgruntled alumni. Until we are able to dismantle tenure, we are going to have to keep looking for innovative ways to make underachieving faculty yield value.” |